Page 40 of Under His Sheets
I had no idea what that meant.
I tried not to look around and instead attempted to follow the conversation. I was listening to Ivan ask Sasha about where he should visit in the South of France, and since the three women had attended university in Montpellier, they were telling him the good things to see there. I caught sight of Alonso entering the bar. I knew I was supposed to act casual, like I didn’tknow himknow him, but I had butterflies in my belly watching him make his way through the tables over to where we were sitting. He’d said to play it cool, but sitting here keeping a great big secret from everyone was, well, making me hella nervous.
“Alonso. Bona nit,” Lara said, and he walked directly toward her, not glancing in my direction. He kissed her cheek, and she waved for the table to pay attention. He was good at this whole undercover gig. Way better than me.
“Everyone, I’m not sure if you’ve all had a chance to meet Alonso. He was so kind as to step in for Pedro when he hurt his back and he’s doing a wonderful job of taking care of our students.” She repeated herself in Spanish and everyone waved and said hello.
“Mucho gusto,” he said with a shy wave, and then he looked around the table for a place to sit.
“Down here…aquí,” Josette said, waving her hands and pointing to an empty chair she’d pulled between us. She leaned in close to Sasha and Camille and spoke in French.
“No fair,” I whispered. “I can’t understand any of you.”
Camille spoke next to my ear. “We have a bet going on to see who he prefers.”
My eyes bugged out. “What do you mean?”
Sasha leaned in close. “He’s so handsome, but no one knows anything about him. We’ll sit him next to you and see who he pays more attention to.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh my God, it doesn’t work like that. Not all the gays are attracted to each other.” They were ridiculous.
“No, but you are so pretty, and men can’t resist Camille, so we will see what happens.”
Is it fair to take their money?“Leave me out of it,” I said as Alonso took his seat.I wonder if my love bite is still visible. The one he’s sitting on right now.
The bar erupted in applause and music as karaoke started up. We were usually gone before they started the music, but folks seemed to want to be together tonight. I wondered if they’d been as shaken as I was by today’s unrest.
Camille leaned across me and spoke in perfect, I assumed, Catalan to him. His eyes brightened and he replied to her.God, he’s hot. If I didn’t know he was bisexual, I’d think he was totally into Camille by the way he was speaking to her.
“Oh, Camille,” Sasha said, elbowing her friend. “I didn’t know you spoke Catalan so well. How did you get so good?”
Camille turned to her, flicking her chestnut-brown silky hair over her shoulder. “I was raised in Andorra,” she said with a flirty shrug. “My grandparents still live there.”
“How did I not know this?” Josette asked her. “And why have we not gone there?”
Camille took a sip of wine. “My grandparents have been hosting many guests the past two years.” Her cheeks reddened and her eyes flicked around the table. “When things settle down, I will take you. We can go skiing.”
Alonso spoke to her across me, and I shivered when his shoulder brushed mine, which he expertly noticed and apologized for, so as not to seem too familiar. They carried on in Catalan for a few more moments, while Josette and Sasha shotme looks, and then Alonso sat back in his chair and smiled shyly at me.
“You are singer?”
I almost responded with, “Of course, and you already know that,” but then I noticed the hesitant way he’d spoken, as if he truly didn’t speak English.
“Uh, sí. Yo canté en el grupo. Ah, ¿cómo se dice indie rock? En Estados Unidos.” I was proud of myself for my almost proficient Spanish, and I swore amusement danced in his eyes and he ran a hand over his smile. Oh, he was playing up the shy act. He may not have thought of himself as an actor, but he wasgoooood.
He crossed his arms over his chest, making his biceps pop under his tight long-sleeved white shirt. “Sing for us?” He grinned and nodded toward the stage. “Si us plau?”
My supposed allies, the French Foreign Legion, all squealed with delight and urged me on. Sasha and Josette got out of their seats and pulled me up. When the rest of the table saw what was happening, they started clapping, “Ran-dall. Ran-dall. Rand-all.”
I gazed back at Alonso and his smile fell a little. Yeah, I hadn’t been onstage since the night before my band quit, though no one else knew that but him. I’d told the girls the basics about the band leaving, but I hadn’t gone into the whole story.
I had no doubt in my ability, but I had been shaken by the lack of confidence my band had in me as a leader when they left. Sure, it was personally motivated and not necessarily about my performance, but for me Iwasmy performance, so I took it hard.
Singing in front of a group of bar patrons used to be something I thought was fun, but fear sliced through me and I almost sat back down, but Alonso’s steady gaze gave me the courage to agree.
My friends and colleagues whooped and cheered for me as I made my way up to the stage and put in my name on the list. I had three people ahead of me, so I went to the bathroom to get my head on straight. For these folks, it was just karaoke, but I never took a performance lightly.
“Hey, you okay?” Ivan came in behind me.“Don’t let them bully you,” he said. “They tried it with me before when I first got hired. I told them I didn’t sing without getting paid, and no, getting paid in liquor don’t count.”
